In recent years, Dongying has intensified efforts to promote industrial restructuring and encourage enterprises to accelerate technological upgrading.

Since 2020, Dongying has set up a special annual fund worth 300 million yuan ($44.28 million) for three consecutive years to support the technological transformation of enterprises.

Over the past two years, the city provided 693 million yuan to support 219 technological upgrading projects, which also propelled 13.67 billion yuan of nongovernmental investment.

The city's new industrialization and information technology processes have accelerated. Dongying has announced a plethora of initiatives to raise technological levels and strengthen the industrial chain in traditional industries including engineering, building materials, and chemicals.

Industrial upgrading programs have been developed for essential industries such as petrochemicals, rubber, and petroleum equipment.

The city also encourages key industries to use the industrial internet, 5G, and other new generation information technologies to speed up high-level technological upgrades, transition from traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, and foster new drivers of high-quality economic development.

It has built 11 intelligent factories, 43 digital workshops, two intelligent parks, two national-level green industrial parks, three green factories and five provincial-level green factories.

In 2021, the city's investment in technological transformation in the manufacturing industry increased by 11.2 percent year-on-year, 13.2 percentage points higher than the provincial average.

In the first quarter of this year, its investment in technological transformation in the manufacturing sector grew 54.7 percent, ranking second in Shandong.